One of the first Sega CD games ever available was COBRA COMMAND. It is a first-person "helicopter combat" simulation played by moving a crosshair over certain target areas of an artistically-rendered cartoon- like moving background and quickly shooting those targets else your helicopter would be destroyed. At various specific times you are also required to move the D-pad in a preset direction to "maneuver" your helicopter. For some reason this game was one of my very favorite early CD games -- probably because it was the first true CD game I had ever played (too much data for a cartridge) and, well, it was fun.
TOMCAT ALLEY could best be described as Cobra Command on steroids. Instead of helicopter combat, you are the Radar Intercept Officer in an F-14X fighter plane. Cartoony video is replaced by more realistic digitized video. Throw in a much more complicated control system (more things to do) and numerous video cut scenes and you have Tomcat Alley.
While flying in the F-14X, you are responsible for much more than aiming and firing the various weapons. When the pilot instructs you to do so, you must select specific waypoints (you will find combat to be much hairier if you select the waypoints out of order), answer the radio calls of your wingman, select the proper type of weapon (air or ground), launch chaff to confuse incoming missiles, and use the recon cam to take intelligence photos. There are many weapons available to you as well, including heatseeking and radar-guided missiles and bombs. Use the right one for the job!
Your actions are selected through the Heads-Up Display (HUD). Your targeting reticle (crosshair) and your radio, air/ground selector, chaff launcher, and recon cam icons are all part of the HUD. You move the crosshair over a target and fire at the target, or move the crosshair over one of the icons at the appropriate times and select it. The specific weapons available are also displayed on the HUD overlay and they are selected just like any of the other icons.
The quality of the video in Tomcat Alley is excellent for a Sega CD title. All the action is full screen and it looks much cleaner than just about any other title out there. The cut scenes are especially good -- you can almost believe you are watching some live footage rather than some Sega CD FMV :). There are long cutscenes such as the main intro and mission briefings (all decently acted with convincing effects). Shorter ones are run throughout the action and depict cockpit shots of pilots talking and "pushing the launch button" (and chastising you if you're not on the ball :), the planes maneuvering, missiles launching, planes destroyed and so on. This can become a bit disconcerting because most actions will result in a cutscene, breaking up the flow of the game to a degree. Certain scenes are also quite common and become a little tiring. Overall, however, they add to the game immensely.
Music is pretty much non-existent, excepting the title screen and it is not anything special. There is, however, sort of a background "beat" during play at times which does add to the game. All sounds and sound effects (speech, explosions, klaxons, etc.) seem slightly muddled but they get the job done.
Load times are incredibly short for a Sega CD game. It looks like programmers are finally getting the hang of the hardware. The backup Sega CD ram is used as well.
My biggest nit to pick with Tomcat Alley is how the crosshair tends to float around (i.e., it does not stay stock-still on the screen if you do not move it yourself). I suppose this is to add to the effect of movement or turbulence, or to just make the game harder. I, however, would have preferred a steady crosshair.
The bottom line is that if you like Cobra Command-type games, you are sure to like this one. You will also like it if you are a fighter plane enthusiast. It is fairly challenging as well because of the many varied actions you have to be ready to perform at any given time. The game is extremely well-done for what it is -- the only question is if you like this type of game.
This review is copyright (c) 1994 by Doug Bauer for Game Bytes Magazine. All rights reserved.